Black Woman Who Climbed Statue Of Liberty Says She Was Inspired By Michelle Obama

Therese Patricia Okoumou channeled her inner #ForeverFLOTUS to stress her belief that ICE should be abolished.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama was clear when she said at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that when “they go low, we go high.” This was the phrase that the woman who climbed the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth July took to the heart—literally.

According to the New York Daily News, Therese Patricia Okoumou, 44, a Staten Island personal trainer and activist, stressed the following in front of the outside the Manhattan federal courthouse on Thursday: “Michelle Obama — our beloved First Lady that I care so much about — said, ‘When they go low, we go high,’ and I went as high as I could.”

She added: “Trump has ripped this country apart. It is depressing. It is outrageous. I can say a lot of things about this monster but I will stop at this: his draconian zero-tolerance policy has to go. In a democracy we do not rip children—we do not put children in cages, period. There is no debating it. Nothing you can say to me will justify putting children in cages. Only a stupid, unintelligent coward and insecure—I will add, a maniac—will rip a tender-aged child from its mother. Reunite the children now.”

Okoumou, a Congolese immigrant, plead not guilty to federal misdemeanors of trespassing, interference with government agency functions and disorderly conduct this week.

As we previously reported, Okoumou was arrested on Wednesday (July 4) for perching herself up on the Statue of Liberty waving a t-shirt with the phrase, “Trump Care Makes Us Sick,” plastered on it. After a three-hour stand-off, the police finally arrested her.

“Michelle Obama said when they go low, we go high. And I went as high as I could." – Therese Patricia Okoumou pic.twitter.com/ZBeS4M8LiO

Okoumou, a member of the protest group Rise and Resist, strongly believes that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency needs to be abolished. ICE under Trump has separated more than 3000 children from their parents at the Mexico-U.S. border, to much chagrin, in the past few months.

While many are calling her a hero, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman called her incident a “dangerous stunt.”

“While we must and do respect the rights of the people to peaceable protest, that right does not extend to breaking the law in ways that put others at risk,” Berman said in a statement.

If convicted, Okoumou could face up to six months behind bars on each count, CBS noted.

9. Serena Williams

10. Rosa Parks

11. Shirley Chisholm

#WeWillPersist: 10 Black Women Who Deserve Their Own Monuments

Bump these Confederate statues celebrating slavery, white supremacy and "American history"! We have our own sheroes!
And with news that folks are sending around a petition that Missy Elliott deserves her own Monument in Charlottesville, we've been thinking what other African-American women deserve to have their legacies immortalized in stone in the South.
From Missy to Former First Lady Michelle Obama to Congresswoman Maxine Waters, here are 10 Black women who we need to have statues in their name NOW!